In the Cross of Reality<\/em><\/a>, 149). \u201cSpeaking is always courting\u201d (149).<\/p>\nCourtrooms exist for those times when speech falters. In a courtroom, speech turns from courtship to dispute and this setting changes the character of speech: \u201cIn a debate, the parties who think they are right must be so precise with each word that even the most mistrustful opponent cannot cast doubt on it. . . . It is a process where judge, jury, bailiff, and lawyers interpose themselves between the parties so as to prevent bloodshed. The love of peace, to which language attests, is to be salvaged in spite of divisiveness. The parties have nothing more to say to each other. The court functions as a second ear and second mouth. A court proceeding therefore preserves a minimum of direct address, without which the parties would inevitably succumb to feud and vendetta\u201d (149).<\/p>\n
An intriguing insight, but Rosenstock has a bigger point to make: \u201cfrom Parmenides to Hegel,\u201d philosophy has been conducted on the model of a courtroom disputation, and as the \u201cargumentation of lawyers became the norm of philosophy,\u201d so the grammar that regulates speech \u201cis a lawyer\u2019s grammar\u201d (150).<\/p>\n
He elaborates, \u201cPlato derived his language from argumentation in the court. His philosophy is concept formation. And concept formation is the retroactive emptying of names from litigation, for the sole purpose of remaining in the right among the parties who each wishes to dispossess the other. . . .Arguments negate the authenticity of language and combust it until its radiance is gone. The language of law is the language you find in the arena of consumption. Because argumentation devours what love creates\u201d (152-3).<\/p>\n
He cites the example of \u201ccause,\u201d which, he claims,. \u201cis based in criminal law and is of Greek provenance\u201d (150). \u201cCause\u201d assumes that things that are derive from things that came before. Rosenstock demurs: \u201cno event can be derived from any previous event or circumstance. . . . With every event, something new has to be acknowledged that has never been before. Whoever acknowledges it must be changed by it\u201d (150). \u201cCause\u201d is not science, observation, or fact but \u201cthe naive dogma of science,\u201d and \u201ca method\u201d (150-1), one derived from the courtroom.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speech exists that we may \u201clovingly create names,\u201d writes Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (In the Cross of Reality, 149). \u201cSpeaking is always courting\u201d (149). Courtrooms exist for those times when speech falters. In a courtroom, speech turns from courtship to dispute and this setting changes the character of speech: \u201cIn a debate, the parties who think they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":19924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,726],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-rosenstock-huessy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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